Episode 17-How do you win over your team

This podcast episode discusses how coaches can win over their teams. The host shares examples from the show "Ted Lasso" and the movie "Next Goal Wins" to illustrate different coaching approaches. The main ideas are: 1) Set the tone and establish expectations for coaches and players. 2) Show confidence and adapt to new situations. 3) Empower the team and make them feel valued. 4) Lead by example and participate in team activities. The host also includes testimonials from former athletes about how he successfully won them over. Hey there, coaches. Welcome back to Gotcha Coach, a podcast about coaching for coaches and presented by a real coach, me. I'm Coach Rick, your host, and welcome to Episode 17 entitled How Do You Win Over Your Team? So this episode is kind of a parallel to Episode Number 7, which we called Inspiration and Motivation, but it has a different enough message that I wanted to let you all into as well. My wife and I have recently been binging on watching Ted Lasso on her nights off from work, and recently I watched a movie called Next Goal Wins on Netflix while she was at work. Both of these are about football, you know, that sport that commonly is referred to as soccer in America. One in England and one in America, Samoa. Both have teams that get new coaches assigned to them. Ted Lasso comes into the AFC Richmond team with absolutely no soccer experience at all, but with a history of being able to win over his American football team. Originally, Lasso was brought in by the owner, Rebecca Welton, to make a mockery of the team as revenge for her ex-husband, Rupert, who built the team. Now, he struggles with going through a divorce. That's Lasso. Being away from his son, who was with his mother in America, and trying to learn the sport of soccer and the culture of a soccer-hungry England while trying to convince his players and the English press that he belongs. Next Goal Wins is a true story about the American Samoa national team that lost to Australia in 2001 by the ridiculous score of 31-0. That's right, 31-0. It tells the story of the Dutch-American coach, Thomas Rondon, who faces the option of being fired from his U.S. coaching team or accepting the almost impossible task of converting the American Samoa national team, considered one of the weakest in the world, to an elite squad and qualify for the World Cup qualifiers. Rondon was depicted in the movie as being a hot-tempered coach. But in a January 2024 interview with Sky Sports, he stated this, Now, I'm not here to give you my personal reviews of either production, but yet to show you a few ways that you can, as a coach, come into an established team, or even a new youth team, and establish yourself as the boss, and yet win the respect and attention of your players, and hopefully the parents, fans, and, in a school situation, school administration, and possibly show examples from each of these that will bring home the point. So here's point number one. Set the tone. You, as the head coach, have to establish the type of program you're going to have. And, as an assistant, you have to be able to support and implement the program your head coach has. Make up your mind before the first day of practice what the expectations are of your assistant coaches and your team. If you're coaching a youth team like AYSO Soccer or Little League Baseball, be prepared to follow the organization's guidelines for what is expected of a coach. Remember, these organizations are about having fun and everybody plays. But that doesn't mean that you can't tweak things a bit, as long as you do it in a positive manner. Here's what I mean. When I was coaching AYSO and Little League some 20 years ago, we had to play our soccer players for two out of the four quarters of a game and our baseball players for at least six defensive outs and one at-bat. Well, as I said, I preached to my high school teams, your practice sessions are like your schoolwork in the classroom, and your game competition is the test on that schoolwork. So how will you know if what you are teaching and coaching is getting through to all of your players? Easy. Play your players as much as you can, within reason, in order to see how they perform in competition. I, for one, played my soccer kids for three quarters in every game and my baseball players for three innings. Now, you have to be prepared to make sure that your team parents know this prior to the start of the season in order to minimize the complaints as to why you're doing this and possibly taking their quote-unquote star son or daughter out of the game for the bench players. Also, when I was the manager for our Little League All-Star team, I made sure that all of the boys were able to play more than the rules required for a simple reason. Many of these 10 to 12-year-olds may never reach this level again, and this is a pretty big deal making your All-Star program. So why not enjoy the time as much as possible? Again, be prepared to really feel the heat from parents on this one, as it seems that the win-win-win mentality is strong in them. Moving on to middle school basketball and setting the tone here. Set up a pre-season interest meeting for all boys or girls for the grade that you are going to be coaching, and open it to parents as well. Establish the parameters for your tryouts. Remember, this is probably the first time that many of these kids have had to go through tryouts, and let them know how many players you will be keeping on the team. Let the players know what things or skills will be done during the tryouts and what you are looking for in a player. This establishes, one, that you know what you're doing. I was taught one lesson when I started umpiring Adult Rec League Softball and Little League Baseball. Sell your call. Be very confident in the call that you make on a play. It may not be right, but if you make it sound confident, you will very seldom get blowback. Do the same when you're coaching. Set the tone. Now, Ted Lasso came to England as an American football coach, along with his assistant coach, Coach Beard. Lasso came into his first press conference with an attitude of, not necessarily one of knowledge, but confidence that he could still guide this team based on the fact that he understood athletes. As the series grew, we saw how Coach Lasso adjusted to the catcalls from the British fans of wanka, which is a British slang term for one who masturbates. Sorry about that. And played into it with his sense of humor and endless mid-American puns. You really have to watch it to know what I mean. Coach Rondon in Next Goal Wins came in with the attitude that foreign coaches had not respected their culture, first and foremost. But coaches came into situations, both of them, that they had not experienced before and had to prove themselves to the players and had to adapt to the situation in order to win over the respect of their team. So now let's move on to, once again, my favorite sport and subject, high school track and field. Winning over your team at this level takes on a bigger meaning. Now you have individual athletes who are trying to obtain college scholarships. This can change their entire family dynamic, and you are the one that can make that happen. Or not. Let's make one thing perfectly clear. Do not change your coaching philosophy, beliefs, or style because you may have one athlete who is above all others and is looking for a future in the sport. Instead, make sure that your philosophies, beliefs, and styles works for everyone and thus will win over your team by making them know that they all are just as important as the stud on the team. As I stated in a previous episode, empower your team. Give them the proverbial keys to the car and guide them on the road to success. Never ask your team to do something that you can't or wouldn't do. In next goal wins, Coach Rondon asked his team to run to the top of a mountain with him. After weeks of endless training, they attempt to run up that mountain as a team with Rondon in the lead. Now, as a young coach, I was able to show my teams by example what I wanted them to do, even if it hurt me. As I grew older, the examples became less and less, but I was still willing to try. Many of my team's watches I ran at coaches four by one relay during an invitational meet in Nevada. And as head coach, I ran the anchor leg so the team and the parents could root me on during the home stretch. Later in my career, we ran a coaches four by one relay against the throwers at the culmination of our home meets. And at this stage, I was just happy to run and give the team something to laugh at. Having the team run alongside of me on the infield during my leg and congratulate me at the conclusion was accomplishing what it was supposed to do, win over my team. I also would, up until my last days of coaching, still get into the starting blocks to demonstrate the proper way to get into the blocks. When the starter gave the command, runners, take your mark. And then how to come up in the blocks when he said, set. Of course, as a coach, shall we say over the age of 62, I joked around about not being able to get out of the blocks without injuring myself. But I still made the point. I did what I asked them to do. Now, here's a note. The one time when I attempted to really come out of the blocks at age 67, someone on the team had their phone camera going and posted it for all the team to see. Embarrassed? No. Proud? Yep. Why? Because I knew that they didn't post it on social media to make fun of me, but instead to show my vulnerability. And that meant that I was successful in winning over my team. I was like them and could fall short of expectations. In my previous episode, I told you that I had asked a couple of my athletes for answers to some questions about what they experienced when I was coaching them. Here's what three of my former athletes said about my ability to win them over. Number one, while the workouts were tough, it turned out that Coach Rick also had an actual sense of humor. What seems like a crotchety old man at first is actually a very warm and silly person. He cracked jokes between reps, joined in on us athletes laughing and having fun without losing the rigor of the workout. Coach Rick was incredibly capable at making a welcoming, fun environment out of the rigor of training, which I always thought was impossible. So not only did the workouts benefit the performance of the athlete, but teammates could also forge bonds between themselves and have fun in the sport. Far too often people lose passion in their favorite sports because there is no opportunity for fun. But Coach Rick ignited everyone's passion, even in those who hated running. Another former runner stated this, there were definitely times when we had fun. Honestly, we probably had a little too much fun when we were supposed to be working out. I think Coach Rick's strength lied in refocusing our efforts on our goals and on the work we were doing rather than just having fun. Enjoying the sport and having fun is certainly a key component to success. And we made it plenty of fun on our own. But Coach Rick helped bring a healthy balance of discipline along with it. That's not to say that he didn't have his moments though. He had some pretty good jokes and getting Coach Rick to smile or laugh was the best and half the fun in itself. Third athlete had this to say, Coach Rick made track both fun and work. We knew when it was time to be serious and put in our work, but we also had a lot of fun throughout the season and there were always jokes. Through the four years, we were really able to make the culture of the team better and better. Track is truly an amazing sport where there is just endless support from everyone when you have the right coaches and the right teammates. And Coach Rick was the start and a big reason for the change in the culture of our track team at Lincoln High School through those four years. Now, athletes number two and three went on to compete at the collegiate level on scholarships. And the third athlete has returned to Lincoln High School and is now an assistant coach on the track team. Further proof that my style and methods work. Special events involving your team is another way to win over your team. But because of the size of a co-ed track team, some of these events need to be toned down or adjusted accordingly. Here's an example. A high school soccer coach decides to have a team bonding dinner prior to the season starting at a local pizza parlor. Fantastic idea, but the soccer team has maybe 15 players. Kind of unrealistic for a track team with 70 plus athletes to invade a local pizza establishment, don't you think? So here's some ideas that I have used to try and have the same bonding for a track and field team that has maybe 50 to 100 athletes. School cafeterias are a great source to host events for a team this size. I've had spaghetti dinners on the night before our first meet and a potluck dinner in mid-season to promote team unity and had them in the school cafeteria. I've also had a Friday night movie night in the school's common area, which is an indoor area that was used for large meetings. We watched Chariots of Fire, a 1981 British historical sports film about two diverse British athletes in the 1924 Olympics. And then we had a question and answer period where prizes were given out for the correct answers about the movie. I've also had contests at our end-of-season award dinner. Each parent was asked to provide a baby picture of their athlete. I would post the picture on a storyboard and ask each team member to guess who each picture was and reward the winner with a $20 gift certificate to In-N-Out or something similar to that. Of course, my baby picture was included, but alas, it was easy to guess that the little guy on the potty was Coach Rick because, well, it was the only picture in black and white. These are just some of the ways that I have been successful in winning over my team, but they are not the only ways that are out there. I'm sure that all of you can come up with other ways based on where you are located and the size of your program, but here's the bottom line. Be real. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable and do not go against your coaching principles and ideals. Be true to yourself and keep the faith that if your style and methods are about building a team and building a program that enjoys what they are doing, eventually wants to be successful and possibly victorious, then you have succeeded as a coach. Remember, building a successful program goes far beyond winning on the track, the court, or the pitch, and you may not totally realize the fruits of your labor until those athletes that you have touched have moved on to college, adulthood, and more. I truly hope that you are enjoying this podcast as it is now my labor of love. To pass on my knowledge to a new generation of coaches is the best way that I can still contribute to the sports that I have coached. If you are enjoying the podcast, please tell your friends about it and tell them they can listen to it on Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, Amazon, Buzzsprout, and other places that you get your podcasts. If you have any questions or feedback for me, please email me at coachrickb53 at gmail.com. Until next time, take care, be safe, laugh a lot, and tell someone that you love them. I'll talk to you soon.